John Luke

(1906 - 1975)

John Luke was an ordinary boy who was born to a working class family in North Belfast. Like many of the young men of his time, he left school at a young age and went to work in the York Street Mill and later in Belfast’s famous shipyards. He learned his craft as a painter by painting murals in his native city and went on to paint some of the most important murals in Ulster. In his late teens, he began attending night classes at the Belfast School of Art and that’s where his career as an artist began. Luke lived a very humble and modest life and it was the love of art that drove him. He never sought material success.

John Luke is best known for his stylized paintings and symbolic murals.